College Park, MD. . .On April 12, 1999, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) posted a major revision to its Internet Web site, http://www.archives.gov. A newly structured Research Room segment of the site presents greatly expanded information about NARA's holdings, reference services, and related policies and procedures.

NARA's revised web site has multiple entry points for the public to access NARA's vast historical resources. The site has something for everyone: the high school student doing a history project, the veteran trying to collect a pension, the scholar searching for previously unexamined documents, Capitol Hill staffers tracing the history of a bill, tourists planning a visit to a Presidential library, members of the public searching for their ancestors, and journalists looking for historical documentation relating to current events. Users of this page will learn how to order publications and reproductions of National Archives documents, find a record of a personal bankruptcy, get access to textual, electronic, audiovisual, and microfilmed records. The page covers NARA's resources in the Washington, DC, area, and at NARA locations in 16 states throughout the country.

Visitors enter NARA's Research Room through "Information for All Researchers" and can take a basic lesson on "How to Do Research at NARA." They can then select a research strategy based on the organization of the Federal government whose records NARA holds (Presidential materials, Congress, Executive Agencies, Federal Courts); the record medium (textual, microfilm, cartographic and architectural, electronic, film-video-sound, photographs, government documents and library materials); the location of the records, including more than 30 sites nationally; or by selected topics, including "Holocaust Era Assets," and "JFK Assassination." A sidebar provides quick links to "Genealogy and Family History," "Veterans' Service Records," "Bankruptcy," "School Projects," "Federal Laws and Regulations," "NARA Publications," and "Reproductions."

This new web resource will greatly facilitate "ready access to essential evidence," the mission of the National Archives and Records Administration.

For additional PRESS information, please contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at (301) 837-1700 or by e-mail.